This thread will talk about general Japanese grammar. Feel free to ask others questions and help out any fellow learners.

Grammar Topic 1

がる - read as Garu

Garu is an auxiliary verb. An auxiliary verb in Japanese is a verb which is used together with a preceding verb or adjective. The auxiliary verbs are slightly different in English

http://www.gingersoftware.com/content/grammar-rules/verbs/auxiliary-or-helping-verbs/

So Garu is basically used after a verb or adjective to show that someone or something showed signs of something for example Tom showed signs of being happy.

Let's look at some example sentences

1. Adjective example: トムはスポーツカーを欲しいがりました。(Tomu wa spootsukaa o hoshii garimashita)literal- Tom showed signs of wanting a sports car/ refined- Tom looked like he wanted a sports car.

2.Verb example: 太郎さんはアイスを食べたかったがりました。(Tarou-san wa aisu o tabetakatta garimashita) literal- Tarou showed signs of wanting to eat ice cream/ refined- Tarou looked like he wanted to eat ice cream

That is basically Garu in a nutshell

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Grammar topic 2.1

This reply will be talking about は which is the hiragana character for the sound "ha"; however, when used in constructing sentences it is used as a particle and is pronounced as "wa".

What is a particle?

It is basically a character/combination of characters (namely hiragana characters in modern Japanese but some have corresponding Kanji for them) placed after nouns, adjectives and verbs which indicates the relationship between words in a sentence. They also give words a certain meaning or nuance. For example いつ(itsu)　means "when" but there is a particle ”だって” which can be used to alter "itsu" in terms of meaning. For example いつだって meaning anytime on its own.

Some usages of は-wa

1.Used to mark the topic of a sentence

Okay I am sure a lot of people know a few Japanese words and they don't know it. On the top of my head I can think of kawaii, sushi and karaoke. So let's say you want to say 'x' is 'y'. X is the thing you are talking about and Y is something ( attribute or any related info about X). This X and Y structure is called a clause and a very simple one at that. So a clause is a grammatical structure that is made up of a Subject/Topic and a predicate (basically something that is related to the Subject/topic). Now that all the Jargon is out of the way let's start.

Example 1 - Assume you want to say "Cats are cute.*
ネコはかわいい (Neko wa kawaii)
*For those who are a little advanced I have intentionally left out です (desu) just so that the topic only explains one thing

Example 2 - Assume you want to say "X girl is feminine"
アリスは女らしい (Arisu wa onarashii)

2.It can be used to contrast or compare things

A simple form of this usage would be- "X は Y。Z は W。"

Example 1: Assume you want to say "Something is X and Something is Y"
トムは大人。アリスは子。(Tomu wa otona. Arisu wa ko)
Tom is an adult and Alice is a child.


These are just some of the usages of は that beginners should learn first

Grammar topic 3

This reply will talk about ください (kudasai)

Kudasai is an auxiliary verb and has the meaning of "please". This verb is used for asking someone to do something or not to do something (a polite command).

In Japanese the verb is the most important part of a sentence. The verb has many forms in Japanese and the verb conjugates in many ways (changes depending on tense,use etc). To use kudasai you have to change a verb into its て (te) form

To tell someone to do something politely you use the following construction

Verb Te form +ください

Example

リンゴを干してください (Ringo o hoshite kudasai)
Please dry the apple(s)

You can also use kudasai to tell someone not to do something politely by using the following construction

Verb negative form + で (de: we will discuss this particle later) + kudasai

Example

リンゴを干さないでください (Please do not dry the apple(s)
Ringo wo hosanai de kudasai

That is ください in a nutshell

Grammar topic 4.1

This reply will talk about に(ni)

に has many different uses from modifying a verb (in conjunction with an adverb) to indicating prepositions (on ,at, in etc) so we will only talk about two uses in this reply.

1.It is used to indicate where something exists. In english examples that are like this would "It is at my house"/"Are you here".
In Japanese, speakers differentiate between non-living and living things. The most common ways this is done is by using the verb "いる" for living things and "ある" for non-living things. Both verbs mean to exist.

Example for living things

i)トムはここにいる (Tomu wa koko ni iru)
"Tom exists here " is the literal meaning but in actuality it means "Tom is here"
Example for non-living things

ii)小冊子は図書館にある (Shousashi wa toshokan ni aru)
The pamphlet is in/at the library

2.It is used to mark time; however, it can only mark time that can be expressed in digits like the days of the week, months of the year etc. Therefore 今日(kyou- day) can not use に

Examples

i)私は午前５時に食べった　(Watashi wa gozen goji ni tabeta)
I ate at 5am

Those are a few uses of に but there are many more which make this particular particle really hard to grasp at first so learn a few uses at a time.

Grammar topic 5

The next topic that we are going to discuss ”時” (toki) which essentially is a noun but we are going to use it as a dependent noun (requires something to modify it). This "toki" will essentially mean 'when' (not a the conditional when as in "When I go shopping I spend my money wisely").

時 when used as a depends noun means "When Subject/object did/does/ will do something" or "When Subject/object was/is something"

Example sentences

1)私は日本に行った時にラーメンを食べた (Watashi wa nihon ni itta toki ni ramen o tabeta)
When I want to Japan I ate ramen

2)私は朝ご飯をたべる時手を洗った (Watashi ha asa gohan toki te wo aratta)
I (will) wash my hands (before) I eat breakfast

Note that when you add "ni" it stresses the time

Grammar topic 6

I may have explained what an auxiliary verb is, but I will do so again to make this reply is complete.

Auxiliary verb- A verb used together/in conjunction with a preceding verb or adjective

The main thing we will be talking about is the usage of 出す as an auxiliary verb. When it is used as an auxiliary verb it means "something latent has become realized" or "started to.../began to..." (SUDDENLY).

Formation Verb masu form plus 出す (in any of its conjugations, but note that it can't be used if you want to say "Let's begin....")

Example

日本に行った時にあなたの父が死んだことを思い出した　("When I went to Japan I (suddenly)remembered that your father died")